You probably think robots are all about replacing warehouse workers and serving you coffee, right? Well, while you’ve been watching Boston Dynamics dogs do backflips, a little Canadian company called Kraken Robotics has been quietly building an underwater empire that would make Aquaman jealous. And honestly? Their 2024 numbers just proved they might be sitting on the next big thing.
The Numbers That Should Make You Sit Up Straight
Kraken Robotics just reported revenue of $91.3 million for 2024, up 31% from the previous year, but here’s the really impressive part: their adjusted EBITDA jumped 47% to $20.7 million. That’s not venture capital funny money or creative accounting tricks, that’s actual profit from solving real problems in one of the world’s most challenging environments.
But wait, it gets better. Their sales pipeline has more than doubled to $2 billion, up from $900 million just a year ago. To put that in perspective, their entire 2024 revenue was $91 million, so they’ve got a pipeline worth more than 20 times their current annual sales. That’s either really good planning or really good luck, and based on their track record, it’s probably the former.
What Kraken Actually Does (And Why You Should Care)
Here’s where things get interesting. While everyone else is focused on making robots that walk around on land, Kraken figured out that the real money is in making robots that work underwater. And not just any underwater work, but the kind of high-stakes, mission-critical stuff that governments and major corporations desperately need.
They’ve essentially become the go-to company for three things that matter more than you might realize: figuring out what’s on the ocean floor, powering underwater equipment, and providing the services that keep critical underwater infrastructure running.
Think about it this way: every undersea cable carrying your internet traffic, every offshore wind farm generating clean energy, every naval operation protecting maritime borders needs someone who can see, understand, and work in the underwater world. That someone is increasingly Kraken Robotics.
The Battery Business That’s Powering Their Growth
Kraken’s SeaPower subsea battery business is seeing significant growth, and they’re planning to significantly increase manufacturing capacity with a new facility in Canada. This might sound boring until you realize what underwater batteries actually do.
Every autonomous underwater vehicle, every subsea monitoring station, every piece of ocean infrastructure needs power that works under crushing pressure and in corrosive seawater. Traditional batteries fail spectacularly in these conditions, but Kraken’s pressure-tolerant batteries deliver high energy density power where nothing else can.
They recently announced almost $60 million in subsea battery orders, which tells you two things: there’s massive demand for this technology, and Kraken has figured out how to make it work reliably. In a world increasingly dependent on offshore renewable energy and underwater infrastructure, that’s not just a nice business, that’s becoming essential infrastructure.
The Services Business You Didn’t Know Existed
Kraken’s service revenue increased 47% to $25.0 million in 2024, driven by projects using their Sub-Bottom Imager and Acoustic Corer systems. These aren’t toys for marine biology enthusiasts; they’re the tools that make massive construction projects possible.
When you’re building an offshore wind farm worth billions of dollars, you need to know exactly what’s under the seafloor before you start drilling. When you’re laying a subsea cable that will carry internet traffic between continents, you need high-resolution data about the ocean bottom. When you’re maintaining underwater infrastructure that keeps the modern economy running, you need services that work reliably in conditions that would destroy most equipment.
Kraken provides those services, and their customers are happy to pay premium prices for the peace of mind that comes with accurate underwater intelligence.
Why Defense Spending Is Their Secret Weapon
Here’s something that should get your attention: 2024 was driven by strength across defense and offshore energy end markets where there is increased focus on surveillance and security of critical underwater infrastructure. Translation: governments around the world are waking up to the fact that their underwater assets are vulnerable, and they need better ways to protect them.
Think about recent events: undersea cables getting mysteriously severed, concerns about sabotage of offshore energy infrastructure, the need for better maritime domain awareness. Kraken’s technology isn’t just solving technical problems, it’s addressing national security concerns that aren’t going away anytime soon.
They’re planning to open a new battery production facility in Nova Scotia to meet increasing defense market demand, which tells you this isn’t a temporary spike in interest. This is sustained demand from customers who really, really need this technology to work.
The Innovation That Sets Them Apart
Kraken recently acquired subsea LiDAR company 3D at Depth, adding another layer to their underwater sensing capabilities. LiDAR technology that works underwater is incredibly difficult to develop, but it provides unprecedented detail about subsea environments.
They’ve also introduced KATFISH synthetic aperture sonar service for the global offshore energy market. If you’ve never heard of synthetic aperture sonar, think of it as underwater photography that can see through murky water and create incredibly detailed images of the seafloor. It’s the kind of technology that makes the impossible merely expensive.
What This Means for Your Future
Even if you never plan to work underwater or invest in marine technology, Kraken’s success tells you something important about where the world is heading. As we become more dependent on offshore renewable energy, underwater internet infrastructure, and maritime trade routes, the companies that can operate reliably in the underwater environment become increasingly valuable.
Kraken isn’t just building robots; they’re building the infrastructure that makes the modern economy work. Every time you stream a video that travels through an undersea cable, every time you use renewable energy from an offshore wind farm, every time you benefit from global trade that moves through secure shipping lanes, there’s a good chance Kraken’s technology played a role in making it possible.
The Financial Performance That Validates Everything
For 2025, Kraken expects revenue between $120 million and $135 million, with the midpoint representing 40% revenue growth. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to grow 45%. These aren’t the kinds of growth rates you get from a mature business coasting on past success. This is a company hitting its stride in a market that’s expanding rapidly.
They ended 2024 with $58.5 million in cash, compared to just $5.2 million the previous year, and working capital of $94.4 million. They’ve strengthened their balance sheet with more than $115 million of new equity and committed credit facilities. This is a company that’s not just growing, but building the financial foundation to capitalize on the opportunities ahead.
Why You Should Pay Attention (Even From Dry Land)
Look, you don’t have to believe that underwater robots are going to change the world overnight. But you should understand that Kraken has built a profitable, growing business in one of the most technically challenging environments on Earth, serving customers who absolutely need their technology to work.
They’ve positioned themselves at the intersection of several powerful trends: the need for clean energy infrastructure, concerns about underwater security, the expansion of global digital communications, and the increasing importance of maritime domain awareness. That’s not one bet on one trend; that’s multiple shots at sustained, long-term growth.
The lesson for you, whether you’re investing, building a business, or just trying to understand how the world works, is this: sometimes the most interesting opportunities are happening in places you can’t see. While everyone’s focused on the flashy robots walking around on land, Kraken has been building the technology that makes the underwater world accessible.
And based on their 2024 results and 2025 guidance, that underwater world is turning out to be very, very valuable indeed.
The Future Is Already Happening Underwater
Kraken is transforming subsea intelligence through 3D imaging sensors, power solutions, and robotic systems, helping clients overcome ocean challenges safely, efficiently, and sustainably. That might sound like corporate speak, but it’s actually a pretty accurate description of building the infrastructure for an ocean-dependent world.
So even if you never get closer to the ocean than your local aquarium, you should probably pay attention to the Canadian company that’s making the underwater world work for everyone else. Because whether you realize it or not, your digital life, your clean energy, and your global economy increasingly depend on technology that operates thousands of feet below the surface.
And Kraken Robotics is the company making that technology actually work.
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